RESUMO
Objective:To investigate molecules involved in the occurrence of pruritus in patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) .Methods:Totally, 522 patients with MF were enrolled from Peking University First Hospital from October 2009 to August 2021, and the incidence of pruritus was calculated. The patients were grouped according to whether they suffered from pruritus or not. RNA sequencing data on biopsied skin lesions of 49 patients were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes between patients with pruritus and those without; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunohistochemical techniques were performed to determine the protein expression of CC chemokine ligand 17 (CCL17) in serum samples from 88 MF patients, and in tissue samples from 81 MF patients, respectively; flow cytometry was conducted to detect markers for T lymphocyte activation and differentiation in peripheral blood samples from 46 MF patients to identify peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets associated with pruritus. Statistical analysis was carried out by using chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman correlation analysis. Results:Among the 522 patients with MF, 305 were males and 217 were females; 347 were diagnosed with early-stage MF, and 175 with advanced MF. The incidence of pruritus was 67.2% (351/522) in the patients with MF, and significantly higher in the patients with advanced MF (81.7%, 143/175) than in those with early-stage MF (59.9%, 208/347; χ2 = 25.03, P < 0.001) . RNA sequencing showed that CCL17 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the MF patients with pruritus than in those without (fold change = 10.09, P < 0.001) . The serum CCL17 concentration was significantly elevated in the patients with pruritus (1 017.05[377.12, 4 831.80] pg/ml) compared with those without (361.66 [180.47, 500.08] pg/ml; Z = -4.57, P < 0.001) , and correlated with pruritus scores ( r = 0.57, P = 0.010) . In both early and advanced stages of MF, the serum CCL17 concentration was significantly higher in the patients with pruritus than in those without ( Z = -3.68, P < 0.001; Z = -2.54, P = 0.011, respectively) . Immunohistochemical staining revealed that there was no significant difference in the relative quantification value of CCL17 between the patients with pruritus and those without ( Z = -1.84, P = 0.066) . The percentage of CD3 +CD4 +CD26 -CCR4 + malignant T cells significantly increased in the MF patients with pruritus than in those without ( Z = -2.03, P = 0.043) , and was positively correlated with serum CCL17 concentrations ( r = 0.49, P < 0.001) . Conclusions:Both CCL17 mRNA expression in lesional tissues and serum CCL17 concentrations increased in MF patients with pruritus, and CCL17 was associated with the occurrence of pruritus. CCL17 may be involved in the occurrence of pruritus through the recruitment of CD3 +CD4 +CD26 -CCR4 + malignant T cells.
RESUMO
Objective:To compare the results of two different measures assessing prospective memory (PM) in elderly schizophrenia,and explore their diagnostic validity.Methods:Fifty patients who were diagnosed as schiz-ophrenia according to the criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,Fourth Edition (DSM-Ⅳ)and 50 normal elderly people were enrolled in the study.Laboratory paradigm prospective memory task and the Chinese version of the Cambridge prospective memory Test (C-CAMPROMPT)were administered to measure thelevel of EBPM and TBPM.The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition,Continuous Performance Test-I-dentical Pairs were used to evaluate IQ and attention.Results:Whether in the laboratory paradigm or C-CAM-PROMPT,schizophrenia group performed worse than normal controls on PM total scores[7(0,16)vs.12(0,16),14 (4,34)vs.25(11,36)],EBPM[3(0,8)vs.6(0,8),7(2,16)vs.14(4,18)]and TBPM [3(0,8)vs.6(0,8),6(2,18) vs.12(4,18)],and patients had comparable performances in PM subtypes[-1.0(-2.2,1.0)vs. -1.0(-2.1, 0.8),-1.9(-3.4,0.8)vs. -1.8(-2.9,1.6)].In the C-CAMPROMPT,the scores of EBPM and TBPM were negatively related to age(r=-0.36 --0.40,P<0.001 ),but there was no significant relationship between PM performance and age in the laboratory paradigm task.The area under ROC curve of the laboratory paradigm and C-CAMPROMPT were 0.73 and 0.85.While 8 and 19 as the cut off value,the sensitivity were 0.60 and 0.74,and the specificity were 0.76 and 0.90,respectively.Conclusion:The two measures have confirmed that the elderly schizophrenia have comparable performances in EBPM and TBPM.Both the C-CAMPROMPT and the laboratory paradigm have moderate level of diagnostic validity,but the former is slightly higher and more susceptible to aging.
RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>An approach for analysis of HIV quasispecies using Miseq high-throughput sequencing platform (hereinafter referred to as Miseq platform) was established and applied to contact tracing for a possible case of HIV sexual transmission.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Four plasma specimens were collected from 2 HIV infections (P1 and P2) suspected to be involved in the sexual transmission and 2 local HIV infections as controls (P3 and P4). The RNAs were extracted from the specimens and then reverse-transcribed into cDNA. After HIV subtyping, Miseq platform was performed to detect and sequence the HIV quasispecies (352 bp) in each specimen. The frequency of quasispecies was counted and ranked. Intrapersonal and interpersonal genetic distance and phylogenetic tree were calculated by using the top 5, 20, 100, 500, and all quasispecies, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The subtypes of HIV from all 4 specimens were CRF01_AE. 23 788 to 37 397 cleaned sequences representing 1 229 to 1 412 unique HIV quasispecies were obtained from these specimens by using Miseq platform. The average genetic distance (3.5%-4.5%) between quasispecies from specimens P2 and P1 was significantly lower than that (10.3%-19.6%) between quasispecies from P2 and the controls (P3 or P4). Phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that sequences from specimens P1 and P2 clustered together while sequences from P3 and P4 exhibited completely independent clusters. When the top 20 or more quasispecies from each specimen were analyzed, sequences from P1 showed a paraphyletic relationship with those from P2, which may indicated that the direction of HIV transmission was from P1 to P2.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>With the feature of convenient and economic operation, Miseq platform has high practical value in contact tracing of possible HIV transmission.</p>
